Why we love Nimrat Kaur

Is there anything our April cover star Nimrat Kaur can't do?

Once in a while, the ever-orbiting cluster of actors turns out a star we didn’t see coming, but once they separate from the rotation, it’s a brightly lit affair.

In the case of Nimrat Kaur, even when you look at other actresses with similar backgrounds – maybe the army-bratdom, the packing up for Bombay in their early twenties, going from being a prop in a TV ad to endorsing things in them – this Punjabi girl from the NCR still confounds the formulae.

Instead of scoping her acting rise from Bombay like we normally would, she somehow snuck off and did the whole international prestige bit first – taking India’s favourite indie of 2013 to Cannes and beyond, somehow sneaking in a stint on Homeland, one of the most highly rated shows in the US, and then coming home to go full-Bollywood, filming Airlift with Akshay Kumar last month.

Nimrat is not some family-friendly Saturday-afternoon sylph. Distill our fascination down to its essence, its “kaur”, and quite simply, we love her because she’s a real woman. She’s over 30. She’s lived. She’s had some hard times. There’s none of this youth/fame disagreement that presages the graceless fall of a career ripe before its time. She’s a big girl, she knows what she’s doing, and when you look her in the eyes, there’s plenty more than your own reflection staring back. She’s the thinking man’s movie star.